What's in an apology? Virality and source effects on evaluations of crisis response strategies via Facebook

Social networking sites (SNSs) have become important tools for organizations and companies to communicate with consumers and constituents during crisis situations. The current study investigated the persuasive effects of message virality and source type on evaluations of apology crisis responses posted on Facebook. The study employed a 2 (source type) x 2 (number of likes) x 3 (repetition) mixed factorial experiment. Participants were exposed to three crisis scenarios, each followed by an apology crisis responses posted on Facebook. Participants were exposed to the crisis response posted either on the CEO Facebook page or the company's official Facebook page. Additionally, participants either saw the status update accompanied by a low or high number of likes. The study's findings were discussed in relation to crisis response strategies and persuasion models. Practically, the study's result that participants' evaluation of perceived source credibility varies with the interaction between source type and virality, trustworthiness has been showed the influence on subjects' attitude. The results showed the insignificant difference of the effects of source type or virality on attitude or intention. It also showed the significant relationship between perceived source credibility and attitude.